Monday, January 20, 2014

Gaiman's Quirk

I've recently been reading a lot of Neil Gaiman's books. While he isn't one of my absolute favorite writers, he is very good and I have been enjoying them. His writing style is amazing and I could only dream of being as good. What has struck me as funny, though, is that there is a single bit of linguistic usage that he does in each book that is jarring to me. It's just the one bit and nothing else!

About six to eight times in each book--check out Neverwhere or American Gods, for example--he uses the phrase 'turned on its side' to refer to someone tilting their head to one side. For me it just feels wrong and causes a little mental shudder. One doesn't tilt their head on one side, at least not to the way my mind works. One tilts one's head to one side.

Funny how something so tiny can keep messing with my reading enjoyment!

(Update, for those who may read this in the future) Mr. Gaiman was kind enough to leave a comment which makes me believe that this quirk is not his but rather must come from whomever is 'translating' his work for American English audiences. I found this issue in all three books I recently read--Neverwhere, American Gods, and Anansi Boys--but all were US-editions.

New update as of June, 2014--My thought, above, that this was caused by someone translating between British and US English must be wrong. I just finished reading Good Omens and this 'turned his head on one side' thing occurs three times in it...and it was all in British English.

11 comments:

Bit puzzled about this. I just did a search through the complete text of Neverwhere and "turned on its side" and "on its side" don't show up at all anywhere in the text. (Although I did find She began to walk through the study, head turning first to one side and then to the other.)

In American Gods you have,

“The pictures you’d get to colour in as kids. ‘Can you see the hidden Indians in this picture? There are ten Indians in this picture, can you find them all?’ And at first glance you could only see the waterfall and the rocks and the trees, then you see that if you just tip the picture on its side that shadow is an Indian...” he yawned.

and

There was a patch of dried black blood on its side, as if it had been stabbed with a spear.

But those were the only examples of "on its side" that showed up when I looked.

Could you give some examples, preferably with page numbers,and let me know if it's the US or UK edition, because this one has me baffled.

Wow, it's an honor to have a response from such a fabulous writer. I always expect my blog has such a small readership that it's all but private, so this is unexpected. Blogger isn't allowing me to email you back, so I'm not sure how to get this information to you. I just finished three of your books in a row (Neverwhere, American Gods, and Anansi Boys), and all three had this in them. I imagine it may be caused by whomever is doing the American 'translation' from your British English. I can't perform a search in my hardcopy books, but I'll gladly try to find examples. If there is a better way to get these to you, please let me know!

Okay, I found one quickly since I just read it last night while finishing Anansi Boys. (I'd like to find more in the other books for you--I especially remember Neverwhere having lots of them). It is the US-edition Mass Market Paperback. On page 356 it has Spider and Charlie sitting on the edge of a cliff.

"You know," he (Charlie) said, "you used to be a part of me. When we were kids."

Neverwhere is at home, while I'm at work now, but I found the edition of American Gods that I read (in case you have the ability to search the text, which I don't). It is a hardcover and says First Edition. It is clearly a US-Edition and was published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. I can find out the edition of Neverwhere once I get home from work.

Okay, home from work. The edition of Neverwhere is the paperback (not MMPB) US-edition also by William Morrow. I wrote this post before I read Anansi Boys, and I noticed in this last book this issue cropped up only a couple of times, while it happened several times in Neverwhere and American Gods. I read The Graveyard Book, Mirrormask, and Coraline too long ago to recall anything like this in them. Thanks for being such a great writer!

Extremely cool! (your visitor) What ISN'T cool is that editors think Americans can't read British. YES, there are turns of speech that change, but it's all English, and most of us have been trained to at least some degree (Harry Potter school annallat). Such a nutty thing...

I mostly agree with you, Hart, though my take is a little more nuanced. Since British English adds a distinct flavour (heh!) to how we read it, I think stories set in British settings should remain in British English for American audiences. But a book like American Gods that is set strictly in an American setting works better for me in American English, since I would find the British English out of place in that kind of story.